Monday, 28 March 2016

To help with the process of making my animation, I decided to make a real life version as was advised in my feedback from several tutors. This is a time lapse video of me and my dad making it with a few alterations to my original design to mimic a child and their parent making it. I will take some photos of the final piece once I've added in the backdrop and moving parts etc.

Friday, 25 March 2016

This is the adapted script for "my science project" to allow for a voice over. This also reduces the signs needed and declutters the stage. This falls in with the feedback I got in the pitch and I definitely agree that it would be a lot more pleasing to the eyes and ears to have it in this format

As Jordan suggested, I have researched into the games company Media Molecule and watched some of their behind the scenes videos and interviews. The style they have created their games in is very close to how I want my animation to look when finished.

From what I have found, this is largely due to the thickness of components and the texturing used on each piece individually. From this I can see that I need a far larger collection of paper and card textures to make the animation look better and I think this will help with the feel of it too.

Tuesday, 22 March 2016

These are part of my texturing experimentations for use in the animatic, pre-vis and final piece. These 9 tests here are free ones sourced from the internet. I'm going to create some of my own textures and use these as a comparison.

1. looks most genuine
6. is a nice texture but just a little too dark for use
7 gives it a wooden effect.

Saturday, 19 March 2016

Following on from the feedback I received in the pitch, I have begun to restyle and redesign many of the components in my work. For the box itself, I have got rid of the theatre front and started experimenting with making it more box like and childish. I've also began to experiment with over layering some textures into them and It is definitely helping and given the 4 variations a better depth and more appeal than a flat, plain colour. I've also tried to experiment a little with text and the kid that the child making this would use stickers or have a younger sibling who might scribble on the box.

My favourite Is the top left. It has a more childish aspect to it but feels more a 11 or 12 year old has created it. It still has a childish look and feel but the stickers look more decorative than random. For a younger kids approach, the bottom left is definitely a strong piece to me. It features glow in the dark solar system stickers. Many children jump to stars and planets when they think of science.

For the pitch I had my animatic in colour but unfortunately without sounds due to some problems that arose. I will be posting a version of it with sound shortly once I have worked out the error that occurred during exporting.

I got a lot of helpful feedback from the pitch. It mainly revolves around how this idea has so much potential, Its now just a case of adding finesse to it and making it into something truly special.

These are some of the points that were brought up:

Get rid of the curtains. Maybe use the box's flaps instead. It's a child's project, there could be a sign on it with "my science project".

Child narration could help move the animation along. There could be scripted errors in pronouncing words or putting the wrong sign on screen for the wording said. Perhaps there is 'audience participation'. The 'audience' could boo when the infection is on stage and cheer when the B cells appear.

Have the backdrops on a roller instead of being lowered. Make it child friendly. If it was made in real life, how would they make it?

Childish aspects like sticky tape, upside down signs, peeling walls are missing. The animatic shows it as being too clean and refined.

Textures need a lot of thought. Do I create them on photoshop or scan in real life textures of paper and cardboard. Maybe crumpled paper will work best.

The sign should have lights. (think of an LED battery pack)

There is a 'samey' feel about how the signs appear in the same place. Its too repetitive and maybe they should appear from different angles. It was also suggested that the signs are reserved for use of the scientific words.

The blood flow cam belt could make the stage feel to cluttered.

From this, I'm going to revisit my art style and the way I've laid the stage out. I might create a real life version during Easter to help me model from but I'm not sure if this will eat into my time too much but I am definitely considering this.

I definitely need to think about how the front of the box should be presented. Maybe glittery stars or an assortment of stickers are shown on the front too. Over decoration is exactly what a child would do.

The backdrops will be on 'rollers' or two kitchen rolls. This allows the 'child' operating it to turn it by hand with ease. I had too many things dropping down from above and upon refection, that makes it too cluttered, repetitive and would be a two child job to operate.

I think I'm going to make some of the components by hand too. I have cardboard, paint and skewers, why not see what I can make by hand and see how it differs to what I had drawn and used in the animatic. Personally, I think I cleaned the components on photoshop a little too much. A child is more likely to draw with feathered, wobbly lines, colour outside of the lines, dent the card and leave holes in the colouring. I think scanning in a lot of texturing will help with the project as well, so I will track down different pieces of papers, tissue paper and scan them in lightly crumpled. Perhaps they could be used as an overlay to the pieces and might add the depth to them that they are lacking.

I will also rethink the usage of the signs and change the angles in which they appear on stage to reduce the relative feel. Maybe they could pop up from the floor or the sides.

This is a lot to think about and incorporate into the animation, so I think I will first do some more research into cardboard puppet shows and see what examples are shown. I think this will also help with the styling of the animation and the drawings that I produce from here on out.

Tuesday, 8 March 2016

As my project is now going to be made using cardboard textures, I thought it would be of use if i experimented drawing some cells onto cardboard. I used a mixture of paint, ink and pens to create these.

Cardboard is a lot more porous than paper so it was interesting to see how the cardboard muted the tones of the colour. When I establish the parts that will be needed for my animation, I might do some similar experimentation to help with the colours.

This is my script so far. I'm still working on the second half but it would be great to get some feedback for my work so far. If someone could check I have my cells the right way around too that would be great. I'm still a little bit confused on the science behind this but think I'm beginning to understand it now.

Upon reflection of the OGR, I wanted to find some way to combine a child-like cardboard box theme and the cleaner cut paper cut theatre I originally wanted to make.

Now I'm thinking that I could create a 'cardboard theatre'. This simplifies the surroundings and allows for more focus on the animation itself. It also helps with the characteristics for the animation. All the components will look like a child and parent project, where everything is made from cardboard and skewers. This allows the puppet like feel and I can combine the automata characteristics as well.

These drawings are some quick sketches that helped me to re-imagine the project. I've used the blood flow concept art as a 'backdrop'. The fuller colour makes it look like the body is heathy. The darker version looks diseased and pushes the infected feel across. The backdrops will be changing through out as they would in a normal theatre production and there will be a 'lighting' bar that is clearly seen. Normally this would be hidden behind a 'border' but I like the exposed look. I'm also thinking about using the 'borders' and curtains during the animation to help restrict the view even further to draw in interest to certain points of the animation.

So far, I'm thinking that my story will be focused more on facts than on a fictional story and I hope to have a rough draft up of my ideas in the next day or two.